Brussels Philharmonic & Ilan Volkov

The sheer scale, technical complexity and acoustic arrangement alone mean that Gruppen [Groups] is rarely performed. Nevertheless, it is one of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s most iconic works. Yet the title does not refer to the three orchestral groups – 109 musicians in total – but to the work’s ‘components’. At the Cologne premiere in 1958, Stockhausen conducted one orchestra, while none other than Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna led the other two. Just as back then, Gruppen will receive two performances at Bozar, with the audience surrounded by the orchestras. Conductor Ilan Volkov divides the Brussels Philharmonic into three and lets fragments of sound fly between the ensembles. Few avant-garde works exploit space so radically, making Gruppen a perfect fit for our Total Immersion festival.